Research

Research overview

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is funded through a diverse range of federal, state and local research grants to study human health in the 21st century. Our research portfolio includes leading research programs in the areas of the regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses during inflammation, autoimmune diseases, bacterial and viral host-pathogen interactions, vaccine development and cancer immunology and immunotherapy. 

Centered on the intersection between basic, clinical, applied and translational sciences, the discoveries of our research program are identifying solutions to infectious and noninfectious diseases. Faculty are organized into collaborative research programs encompassing i) mucosal immunology and microbiome research; ii) bacterial pathogenesis, virulence mechanisms, and vaccine development; iii) cancer immunology and immunotherapy; and iv) virology and neuroimmunopathology

Our research environment is highly collaborative and features projects directly benefitting from cross-disciplinary efforts and state-of-the-art approaches and technologies to solve the human health problems of today and tomorrow.

Primary Faculty

Yousef Abu Kwaik, Ph.D. - Professor - Manipulation and exploitation of the host cell biology by intracellular bacterial pathogens.

Pascale Alard, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - Medical, dental and graduate education. Education research; Enhancing tolerogenic APC and Treg to control autoimmunity.

Neal Bhutiani, MD, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor

Haribabu Bodduluri, Ph.D. - Professor, Department Chair- Signal transduction, leukotriene receptors in inflammation and host response.

Carolyn Casella, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - Medical, dental and graduate education. Understanding vaccine adjuvants.

Donghoon Chung, Ph.D. - Professor - RNA virus replication and antiviral discovery.

James Collins, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Adaption and selection of enteric pathogens.

Denada Dibra, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Oncogene-driven immune evasion and tumor–immune interactions studied using spatial and single-cell approaches, immunopeptidomics, and spontaneous in vivo genetic models

Ryan Doster, MD, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Pathogenesis of bacterial infections during pregnancy.

James E. Graham, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - Medical, dental and graduate education. Global analysis of bacterial gene expression. Microbial adaptive responses and infectious disease pathogenesis.

Venkatakrishna R. Jala, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - Structure-function relationships of G-protein coupled receptors and their role in the development of inflammatory diseases. 

Irina Kirpich, Ph.D., MPH - Professor - Gut-Liver axis and Host-Microbiota interactions in liver disease.

Michele M. Kosiewicz, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - T cell tolerance and autoimmunity.

Matthew B. Lawrenz, Ph.D. - Professor, Director of Graduate Studies - Host-pathogen interactions, identification of bacterial virulence factors, interactions with leukocytes.

Thomas C. Mitchell, Ph.D. - Professor - Innate immune responses that shape adaptive immunity.

Sharmila Nair, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Oncolytic viruses in cancer therapy.

Kathryn Ramsey, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Bacterial virulence gene regulation.

Carolyn Roberson, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - Medical, dental and graduate education and faculty development.

Kevin Sokoloski, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - Viral replication and virion structure. 

Huang-Ge Zhang, Ph.D. - Professor - Autoimmune diseases, cancer immunology, regulation of leukocyte inflammatory function in autoimmune disease and cancer.

Jian Zheng, MD, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - The impact of aging on viral respiratory infections.